The Costume Party
by Katherine-Lupin-ENVER
Summary: Zutara Week 09 entry for crossover. It really isn't a crossover but it mentions lots of other fandoms though. Placed in modern day, of course AU. Hope you like it. 1º story in english R&R please


Well hello everybody. My name's Kat and this is my first Avatar/english fic, I'm not an english native so I hope I didn' t screw it and made something fine at least. Hope you like the fic and this is an entry for 'Zutara Week, Monday – crossover' so go check dA that there are going to be a lot more of things like this =D yay!!!

So well, I know its more than probable that nobody it's going t oread this AN, but anyway I always post them. Well this is an AU, or as I like to consider it it is a Avatar/Reality crossover heehehe, well the topic was rather difficult to make a fic with but then someone said something about drawing Zuko and Katara disguised and then this popped into action there in my little mind. It is actually, considering the costumes Avatar/ a lot of other fandoms (even shakespeare). Here it has a lot of twist and I think it exposes a lot of my ideas about ships I like, plot and how I picture some characters. Somethings are going to sound weird becouse they were coming to me as I wrote the whole thing. And before people asks I HATE THAT PEOPLE MAKES TOPH BLIND IN MODERN DAY FICS BECOUSE IT'S VERY UNLIKELY THAT SHE WOULD SEE ANYTHING OR MOVE OR ACT AS SHE ACTS IF SHE DIDN'T HER POWERS TO SEE. So as in some modern day fics( more exactly Wolvenfire86 stuffs, go read his fics they are awesome), I'm making her see but she uses contacts becouse she doesn't has such an acurate sight.

Second thing, yes everybody is married, becouse I pictured them as older, I even mention it in the fic, Zuko is 30 wich means, Sokka and Suki are 29, Katara 28, Aang and Toph 26, if you have anything to say about that I'll just say that I was like 6 years when my mom was 30 and that people used to get married long before that age, beside I think that if you are dating someone you REALLY love for a lot of time you would marry them when reached certain age.

Please, I know that for a lot of people is hard to do but: nothing of shipping wars or I'll respond and I have to say I'm not that calm when put in war mode. Please this is for fun, no profit won from this, just feeding the fandom. So make love no war.

At last I want to end with two things, first I need a beta, if you are one please contact me my msn adress is open for people to add me. Second review and coment if you like it, if I did something wrong, if you don't agree with something, anything. Well I think that's all. Hope you like it

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN A THING, IF I DID ZUTARIANS WOULB BE SAYING 'HA-HA' INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO THEM. EVERYTHING BELONG TO BRYKE AND

That morning when he woke up he had actually believed it was going to be a good day. Indeed it had been a good day, no problems in the office, he had sealed some important contracts with another company, had an spectacular business lunch, had talked with some old friends and gone to visit his uncle in his tea shop before returning home to his lovely wife. Yes no doubt it had been a wonderful day, even the weather had been good, a beautiful sunny warm day, which was quite rare considering the time of the year they were in.

After parking the car in the garage he walked through the front yard of his house noticing how the big tree they had there had almost lost all his leaves and that they were scattered in the grass of said front yard. He would had to clean it this weekend, thanks God! it was Thursday and the weekend wasn't that far away. Now he would only keep himself to spent what he spected to be wonderful night to end this wonderful day, with his wife, preferably in bed snuggled to each other while sipping a cup of wine and eating chocolate. Yeah, that would be great.

Of course as he had learned when he met Katara, his plans weren't always hers or even close to what she wanted to do. As soon as he crossed the door he knew something wasn't right, for him. Music was playing loudly from the living room, fabric was all over the table in the dinning room and from the kitchen came a rather unpleasant smell - not counting the smoke that was starting to come from there.

"Katara? Is everything ok?" he asked

"Oh Zuko! Honey, you're home, I didn't spect you this early, sorry dinner isn't ready yet hehe" She shouted from somewhere in the upper floor.

"Baby it isn't early, actually it's a little late. And what have I told you, dinner is not that important. I'm not your brother who probably would die without a meal"

"I know, I know... But I promised you that I was going to make dinner today and I always keep my promises" She said while she ran down the stairs.

Suddenly she jumped from the last step, he could barely catch her while she flew to him ending with both of them in the floor, she straddling him while kissing him fiercely. When she broke the kiss to catch her air she said softly to him "Welcome home, honey" with a big beautiful smile plastered on her face.

"Yeah, well it was quite a welcoming you could say" he said with the same smile "One thing though, Tara, what's that smell?"

"OH MY GOD!!!!!! I forgot the food on the stove!" She screamed at the same time as she got up hurriedly from him and run to the kitchen. He looked at the direction where she had left.

Now he wasn't very sure he wanted to offer her to take dinner to bed considering it smelled so...weird. He was only pleading that it wasn't one of her Gran-Gran special meals, otherwise it could burn freely for all that he cared. He was not going to eat those awful cooked prunes again, it doesn't matter how much Katara pleaded he wasn't repeating the last "Family Reunion" fiasco (which had included hateful glances from his wife step-grandpa, stupid comments from his brother-in-law, some more "you better..." speeches from his father-in-law and above all, those disgusting stewed prunes that made him feel nauseas all night until he returned home and poured his stomach out to the poor toilet).

He picked his things up from the floor, put them in the studio, change himself into more comfortable clothes and prepare himself to start fixing the mess the house was. That was when he found what he knew would turn his awesomely great day into a total disaster. There between the things on the table was an envelope, an envelope with a letter, a letter with an invitation, an invitation to a party, a costume party. He throw immediately all the fabric and clothing he was grabbing backing away until his back met the wall. Horror was written all over his face, his eyes couldn't be more open, even his scarred one was bigger. He begun stuttering Katara's name but when he realized he couldn't he decided the best way to take this blow was going to be face front.

When he reached the kitchen area, Katara spected him to come close and hugged her from behind like always did when he found her cooking. However when that didn't happened she new something was wrong. She turned around to find her husband leaning in the doorway looking completely shocked as if he had seen Death it self.

"Tell me you said no, please please please tell me you said no" he said frantically

"No to what?"

"Babe, please tell me you said no, to that freaking costume party" he answered in the verge of having a nervous break down.

"Oh! That...well, actually the thing is... you see it happened that... and as my brother and Suki are going" she tried to answer sheepishly "and Aang and Toph are going to soooo I thought you had no problem with us going if our friends were going to be there sooo...."

"You said yes before even considering asking me, don't you?" he said with a deadpan expression in his face, though his eyes were raging and burning in unspoke fury he was trying to control with all that was in him.

"You could say it like that if you want" she said turning around, preparing herself for what she thought would be another call to the police from her neighbors becouse of the shouting there was going to be on the house. It didn't matter though she had a point to going to this party and he as the good -whipped- husband he was had to support her and accompany her there.

Gathering all the self control he knew he had somewhere inside him he took some air before starting talking, no shouting, after all shouting with Katara only led to more shouting together with a week of sleeping in the couch."Babe, beautiful, honey, Tara, Katara, you perfectly know that I hate social gatherings, that I take it when we invite our friends here becouse they are friends after all and when we got those stupid company galas I only go couse is my freaking company"

"I'm perfectly aware of that darling, who do you think I am, my brother?" she looked at him with one lifted eyebrow as trying to say 'defy me and you'll see'

"So *gulp* if you know why do you say yes every time we receive one of those invitations, any way from who is this time, Haru and Ty Lee?"

"Exacly how did you knew?" she responded with utter glee in her voice.

"Becouse they are the only ones that I know enjoy making other people miserable inviting them to their parties" exasperated, seeing that he would have to fight a lot to see if she might change her opinion, he took a seat in one of the wooden stools putting his elbows in the counter while his hands rubbed his scalp and temples, he could feel the headache starting to form.

What an end to his wonderful day.

**********

After an never ending strangely calm discussion he accepted his already known defeat, she had alredy said yes, all her friends, both of them friends were going to be looking for them there. The only thing left was deciding what costume they were going to use, now he was not going to falter. She wouldn't make him use something in what he would look ridiculous. He loved her very much but everything had a limit - and he kept asking himself how was that she always skipped those.

"Well you see how people never believed that we really loved each other or that we were going to last, less that we were going to get married" she was saying over excitedly.

"Tara... you barely believed it yourself" she didn't payed attention to the comment and kept on with her ramblings "And you remember how they compare us to some crack couple from some fandom over there, all the time? So I decided we should go dress as one of those couples" she passed him some printed pictures she had surely taken from some fanbase in the net. He flipped through them, noticing some where really 'crack' pairings considering the fandom. There was a picture of Draco/Herm, from Harry Potter; Sesh/Kag, from Inuyasha and some more like that.

"I was thinking that maybe like everybody thinks we are just like Draco and Hermione together we should go as them, but the thought it twice and realized that really is impossible, like completely impossible becouse they had nothing in common and we do. Besides I don't think you'd look good with yellow hair. So then this idea of going as an anime came to me and the first thing I thought was how people used to compare us to the Sesh/Kag thingy, but then again, that's even more impossible than the other one, that without saying that I don't ship those couples, those fandoms have very good canon pairings. Kikyo/Inu, was completely out of the question, she makes me remember that boring ex of yours. What was her name again?...Mai, yeah that one, so I thought of Kag/Inu, becouse you're not so friendly as to play Miroku's part. Also declined becouse I'm not such a crybaby that in the end gets stomp by the person she cares for anyway, even if they end up together in the end. I thought maybe Romeo and Juliet but in the end they die, so no. Maybe Jack/Sally but like yeah we are anything like those. I couln't come up with any Disney character that wasn't a blond princess so I discarded Disney as soon as it came. Then Shakespeare came again to my mind with Hamlet, but that made me remember how all your family is indeed crazy and that your uncle did marry your mum too, so I thought that maybe it would end up being an rather unpleasant costume instead of a funny one. So that left me with two choices for you to decide which one you like." She end all her ranting about pairings, heck things he barely knew of. He was rather surprised she was able to say all that without taking any breath or brake, truly he had to be more impressed how he had understand all that she had said becouse of the speed she had speak with.

"I don't know of what to be more impressed: of how you know/remember all of those things or how little it took you to speak of all them" he had a bewildered looked on his face. His mouth agape and eyes wide. She surely had more free time than he thought. For God's sake, more free time that he had ever had, that was for sure, otherwise how would she now all this stuff of fandom.

"Oh Zuko that doesn't matter now. The only thing you have to do is say yes or now to the costumes I picked" She grabbed the bunch of pictures he still had on his hand and started flipping through them until she found two, throwing the rest over her shoulder. "This are the ones I really like" She passed him one of the pictures.

In the moment he saw it he throw it like it was on fire. "NO!" he boomed "Not even dead Katara. You know that if I wear that I would never see the end of it, less from your brother, you know how much he likes pointing my 'failures' for his amusement"

"Oh, but darling, please please I really like that one and it's very easy to do, and you know how much I hate renting things" he never stopped shaking his head, saying in soft undertones words that sounded like 'never, no, not even dead, mhm, over my dead body'"oh ok" she sighed "If you don't like it we wont go with those, so then I think we'll go as the Phantom of the Opera thing"

"Which Phantom of the Opera costume Tara?" now he was dreading see the other picture.

"This one darling" she smirked as his eyes widened for the thousand time that night.

************

"I just can't believe it, Sparky, how did she got you into this" Toph and Zuko where leaning against the wall near the punch table at the party, very away from the main center of attention, both wanting to some kind not be notices they were there seeing they couldn't scape their spouses. "Well she always does it, you call yourself a very determined person but when it comes to her you falter and fall just like a moth flies to the light. And now above all, you are wearing a dress. A DRESS!!!!! JEEZ!!!! How can I tell people that I know you if you are going to go through this embarrassment" She was gesturing to his 'dress' and avoiding look at it if she could, it even made her feel embarrassed.

"First thing Champ, is not a dress is a roman tunic and a roman armor, see, I even have the sword..." he started

"Yeah, I won't deny it, the sword thing it's cool, but it is still a dress man, there's nothing you can say to change my opinion"

"Toph, did you forget your contacts in home becouse if you hadn't notice it YOU ARE WEARING A DRESS TOO, worst yet, your's is undoubtedly a dress, what are you, some kind of Disney princess?" He exclaimed pointing her own costume seeing if this draw her attention out of his.

"Actually yes, it is" she shrugged while blowing some hairs out of her face.

He couldn't help but gasp at the revelation "You must be kidding me? You as a Disney princess? I don't see something less befitting for you than that. How did he got you into it" He said turning all serious and using a voice very alike his business one.

The hole costume situation was starting to bother her now, but it had been her who brought the issue around, it was time to pay the consequences "Well you see how I always push him around, and I'm always bossy with him and kind of order him to do a LOT of things for me, well he asked me if we could come and I felt really bad for him, considering all those things, and said 'Ok, but you pick the damn costumes' and that's how he ended up saying he had already picked them and then something of seeing Disney movies or something like that, I just turned my brain off" she was looking to the opposite side, she didn't want to see his amusement face, her hands fidgeting in her back.

"He got all puppy eyes didn't he?" he deadpanned

"You too?"

"I'm starting to wonder if that tactic is ever going to stop working"

"Yeah, me too. Well at least the dress fits me, and as Aang said 'it has something to do with my heritage', I just wonder if my personality has anything to do with this girl, I bet not. I picture her in my head as another sissy princess, do you know her?"

"Champ, no one has your personality. Thats like asking.... an apple tree to give pears. And her name is Mulan, I think, you should ask Katara, she is the one who sees those movies, I just sleep through them, better yet, why don't you ask your own husband why he chose this costume" He said pointing to the dance floor were said people were dancing together.

"I think he chose it becouse it implied him wearing a big 'manly' armor and carrying sword around and looking regal and so not him, you know. Don't you think they are a little old to keep watching all this movies, well you and Katara are old enough to be watching them with your kids, I mean you are what...thirty, thirty something aren't you?" she said nonchalant .

"Thirty, thank you for remind me that I'm getting old and that uncle and mother are asking for grandchildren" he took another swig from his punch cup "Beside now, you're married to, why don't YOU have children eh?"

"Newlywed, Sparky, That's the magic word, too soon and young to start popping babies" she finalized with a smirk on her face, rubbing in his face again the things he had just pointed sarcastically."Hey, you never told me how did she get you in a dress in the end. What did she offered or threaten with this time?"

"She put it quite simple. Marc Antony and Cleopatra or a very suggestive cleavage and showing skirt from a musical. The choice was so easy you wouldn't believe it" he stared at the front again, seeing his wife dancing with their best friend.

"Well I think that at least we got it better than poor Snoozles, at least we weren't forced on make up" she made a gesture with her head indicating to a couple coming from her left side. Both were dress with eighteenth century France clothing. Both were wearing the traditional white wigs and white make up in the face. Of course he was sporting his worst expression while she was delighted with the costume choosing.

"Don't tell me she even pushed him to paint a mole on his cheek" you hadn't to strain your ear to hear the laughing tone in his voice.

"Yeah, it seems like that, of course he isn't happy at all, I think he kind of lost a bet becouse ever since they arrived she has taken him to talk with everybody in the room and obviously she choose it becouse it combines her two big loves: white masks and fans, besides she has that thing for big baggy and stuffy clothing"

"Yes I am able to notice the obvious" by then Sokka had already reached them so they stopped joking about the custom. The moment he was in front of Zuko he looked him up and down and said, much to Zuko relief.

"I'll don't say anything if you don't either"

"It's a deal man"

"Come Snoozles, join the group as it seems your captor has forgotten you for the time being. Drink this" Toph said offering him a glass of punch.

"Spiked punch, I tell you are going to need it. You aren't driving don't you?"

"For all that I cared, she can drive all she wants" And as he said this the three of them took a large swig of their glasses while they looked ahead completely unmoving from their little away spot.


End file.
